So we are back and ready to get started. Get excited for some great events coming up including an Open House for new members from 5-7PM on Feb 7. The first weekly Food Discussion (Topic: "Food Lifestyles") at 12PM on Feb 8 (bring your own lunch). The first monthly Potluck from 5-7PM on Feb 8 (campus wide). Looking forward to some great farm action this semester.

Also, we were glad to have a photographer join our kitchen table on Thursday. Had fun being photographed and sharing delicious food (aka 100%

Professor Lang brought up an interesting topic about organic gardening and genetically engineered products on September 28 at our first food discussion of the semester. First, we enjoyed a video presented by Anika and Jasmine about the problems with GMO's. Though the video was vastly exaggerated, it got the old thinking cogs turning. Why do we use GMO's? The discussion continued about the need to feed people, and that at the time that GMO's became a common occurrence (around the early 1990's) people were just looking for more ways to increase productivity. Now every super market has about 2/3 of their products containing GMO's. How does that make you feel? In the end we concluded that in order to avoid such foods, one simply has to not purchase it. Every time one spends money on a product, one is essentially voting to keep that product around. But before jumping to the gun about the problems with GMO's, learn more about them and how they can affect you.

First Food Discussion of the semester will be on Friday September 28th at 12pm. Professor Will Lane will be leading a discussion about “Organic Gardening and Genetic Engineering: Enemies or Friends?”. Hope to see you there!

Please join us on Sunday, September 16 from 5pm-7pm at Farmhouse for a potluck dinner and discussion with Chris Cherniak (’81)!

Chris is a Gettysburg College alum who graduated in 1981 with a major in physics. He went on to graduate school and earned his MS in Environmental Engineering. Today, he is a consultant in the environmental science and engineering field, and specializes in wastewater treatment systems, environmental compliance and contaminated property assessments and remediation. Additionally, he is a host of an hour-long weekly radio show called This Green Earth, which covers environmental news, topics and issues.

Chris will be joining us on Sunday night for an informal talk and discussion about his experiences and career, the liberal arts tradition, and his combining of various disciplinary angles in his professional life.

And this is how it went:

We had about 45 students and faculty attend, several from the Environmental Writing and the Green Eggs and Government Cheese courses, as well as many who were just interested. We had tons of great food and leftovers (and awesome combinations of vegetables from our very own garden and Painted Turtle Farm). Chris spoke to us about his time here at Gettysburg and why it is important to care about the environment. Overall a successful event and we hope to have two more potlucks this semester and three next semester.